Ringing

How to spell ringing

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce ringing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ringing mean?

1. verbProducing or being filled with a clear, resonant sound, as a bell, phone, or alarm does.
2. nounA continuous resonant sound, or a buzzing sensation in the ears.
3. adjectiveClear, resonant, and emphatic in tone or quality.

Ringing in a sentence

• verb

  The phone kept ringing while she was stuck in the meeting.

• noun

  A faint ringing in his ears lingered for hours after the concert.

• adjective

  The committee gave the proposal a ringing endorsement.

• verb

  Church bells were ringing across the valley all morning.

• noun

  The ringing of the doorbell echoed through the empty hallway.

• adjective

  Her speech ended with a ringing call for reform.

Where does ringing come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present participle of the verb 'ring', which descends from the Old English hringan, meaning 'to make a clear, resonant sound' as a bell does. That verb belongs to a broad family of Germanic words, with close relatives in Old Norse hringja and Old High German, and the sound itself is thought to be imitative, echoing the very noise a struck bell makes. It is worth noting that this 'sound' verb is historically distinct from the noun 'ring' meaning a circular band, even though the two share an identical modern spelling. The spelling 'ringing' looks deceptively like it might need a doubled consonant, but because the base 'ring' already ends in the 'ng' digraph, you simply add '-ing' with no doubling at all. Over the centuries the word broadened from literal bells to describe telephones, ears that buzz after loud noise, and figuratively a clear and emphatic quality, as in a ringing declaration.

How the word is built

• ring (Old English hringan: to make a resonant sound)
• -ing (present participle / verbal noun suffix)